What do Microsoft program managers do?
At Microsoft, PM stands for program manager, whereas at most other tech companies, it means product manager. Depending on the company, you can also find roles such as technical program manager and project manager, the latter especially common in a swathe of other industries.
There are some notable differences between product, project, and program management, which many people have written about.
Here’s my perspective on what program management looks like at Microsoft, and some ways to think about product that I wish I had thought about when I first started working.
1. What you do as a Microsoft PM largely depends on your org, team, and product.
On some teams, a PM at Microsoft will resemble the industry definition of a product manager: they develop and advocate for the product vision, build the roadmap, interact with customers to collect feedback, and work cross-functionally with engineering, design, marketing, customer support, etc. over the product or feature lifecycle, from ideation through launch and beyond. At Microsoft, this kind of role may be referred to as a ‘feature PM’ or ‘product PM.’
On other teams, a PM at Microsoft may be closer to the industry definition of a program manager or technical program manager…
